Joe

Finally, some have discovered how to turn lead into gold.
That's really progress.  Hurraw for the 21st Century!

Harvey Miller

--- Joe Fjelstad <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> I took a look the other day at US patents to see what was happening on
> the
> lead-free front and senses the size of the minefield was being laid out
> for
> future legal battles as lead-free products are being rolled out.
>
> I did a quick search using the limiters of:
>
> Lead free OR leadfree OR lead-free AND solder AND  circuit,
>
> It is admittedly not perfect but it was done in a manner to to try and
> focus
> the search on electronics related filings and hopefully filter out
> things
> like paint, gasoline and pipe.
>
> The same search was performed for each of the 14 years back to  1992
> which is
> about when the lead-free campaign began.
>
> Here are the results:
>
> Year         No. of  patents
>
> 1992     =      3
>
> 1993     =      9
>
> 1994     =      8
>
> 1995     =      21
>
> 1996     =      11
>
> 1997     =      13
>
> 1998     =      20
>
> 1999     =      25
>
> 2000     =      32
>
>
> 2001     =      58
>
> 2002     =      92
>
>
>
> 2003     =      135
>
> 2004     =      165
>
> 2005     =      159
>
> Total     =      751
>
> It appears that there was an early surge around the time the US
> government
> first expressed a willingness to listen to the argument for a  band on
> lead and
> then a slow down that roughly corresponds with US government's
> realization
> that there was no scientific evidence that lead in electronic solder
> was a
> problem and then another surge in patents that has accelerated since
> the EU made
> known their intentions.
>
>
>
> Now here is the kicker...
>
> There are more than 1100 published US patent applications currently
> pending
> issue using the same search criteria. The number of suppressed  US
> patent
> fillings and foreign patents would surely have added  significantly to
> the tally.
>
>
> Best wishes,
> Joe
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Leadfree
To temporarily stop/(start) delivery of Leadree for vacation breaks send: SET Leadfree NOMAIL/(MAIL)
Search previous postings at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
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